The Off Season is Getting Heated

I am a part of a Golf Tour known as the SWA Tour. It is highly competitive and sometimes pushes friendships to the breaking point. It’s all about the “W” though right? I have yet to win a Major championship in the 2 years of competition. Below is a fellow competitors response to a letter that was written to him conserning the state of his golf game.
Enjoy…

In a Few Words: A Response

Mike. Nathan. I have read your open letter directed my way. I have read it and I have reread it. “He really needs to make a big commitment of sorts to keep up when he gets back.” The message couldn’t have been more clear. It is now an indisputable reality that this information, that of which I have come to understand, but not fully accept some time ago, has become public knowledge.

Allow me to elaborate.

One thing that I have had access to during my leave of absence is time. A curse at first, admittedly, but recently it has presented itself as more of a blessing… an opportunity to be specific. A deliberate exercise in rumination, if we’re splitting hairs. During this time, I have had a chance to reflect on all things golf. I have had a chance to look at my game, as it was, as it is, and as I imagine it to become. I have had a chance to look back on our years together as friends, as competitors, and at the worst (best?) of times hated rivals. As such, I have come to a number of conclusions. To name a select few:

#3 We are all relatively good at golf*, but my exile has forced me to realize that out of the three of us, only you two are golfers.
#21 If golf is 90%** mental, on any given day there is only a 10% chance that I will win.
#79 Mike saying, “I’ve figured out my swing” will ALWAYS get a laugh out of me.

The most concerning conclusion, however, came immediately following reading your post, titled “Dear Tom,” #127

OMG. They’re right.

The road between utter deflation and restoration of self-worth was both long and hard. Curse you, Kubler and Ross. With not a small amount of shame I will admit that I hated you both individually for a time… it was your fault, after all. Or so I reasoned. At my lowest point, I had shopped ebay to determine the monetary worth of my clubs bent on leaving the game.

Not to worry, I have since come to my senses. I realize I have a long way to go before I may be regarded as a competitor on the SWA circuit. Consider me the Lindsay Lohan*** of our tour. A washed up, humiliated, shell of a former golfer (actress) with an opportunity to choose between two very different options. The easiest way out is to ignore common sense altogether and blindly continue down the path of self destruction. Alternatively, to take an inventory of myself, rededicate myself to the game I love (craft she was born into) and accept the pain and effort that comes with self improvement.

I have decided on the latter.

Exactly how I do so is beyond the scope of this response, however, in the spirit of dialogue I will reveal my strategy in future posts. Talk it out, you could say. In the meantime, allow me to leave you with this. The gauntlet has been thrown down and after much soul searching, I welcome your challenge. With fond memories, I say goodbye to the Tom as golfer you and I once knew.